Farmers often use a baler to collect crop materials from a windrow and form the crop materials into a bale for transport or storage. Round balers are commonly used that include a starter roll located at a baling chamber inlet that engages the crop material in the baler and assists in rolling up the crop material into a bale as the crop material is processed in the baling chamber. The starter roll may be provided with a smooth, spiral, or helical surface for engaging crops. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,181,461 discloses a starter roll having a pair of ribs coated with or made of rubber or another friction enhancing material that are releasably attached to the roll for increasing its aggressiveness. In another embodiment, the roll has a pair of cylindrical shells releasably secured thereabout, the shells being coated with rubber or another friction enhancing material for increasing its aggressiveness.
Once a bale has been formed it is commonly wrapped with a wrapping material, such as a mesh wrap, twine, or the like, in order to keep the formed bale intact. For example, a baler may be provided with a wrapping mechanism that supplies a wrapping material to the baling chamber, wraps the bale in the baling chamber then kicks out a finished and wrapped bale.
The materials commonly used for wrapping a bale are generally lightweight and flimsy, however, leading to various difficulties in wrapping the bale. For example, the wrapping material is susceptible to being affected by factors such as wind, static electricity, and the like, and the material tends to bunch toward the center of the bale making it difficult to cover the edges of the bale or any desired portion of the bale sidewalls. For example, some wraps are provided with elastic ends that are meant to cover the outer edges of a bale. The prior art starter rolls described above tend to bias the wrapping material in the direction of the spiral thereby moving the wrapping material away from one of the edges of the bale, exacerbating the difficulties in properly wrapping a bale to cover the baled edges and sidewalls.